Arsenic and Old Lace

Arsenic and Old Lace (in Argentina, Arsenic and old lace; in Spain, Arsenic for Compassion; in Mexico, Arsenic and Lace) is a 1944 American comedy film directed by Frank Capra. It is based on the play of the same name.

Screenplay by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein. Capra actually shot the film in 1941, but it was not released until 1944, after the stage version had finished its run on Broadway. Bob Hope was initially considered for the role of Mortimer Brewster, but he could not be released from his contract with Paramount. Capra also tried Jack Benny and Ronald Reagan before settling on Cary Grant. In the theater Boris Karloff played Jonathan Brewster, who "looked like Karloff", but he could not participate in the film because the recordings coincided with the performances on Broadway. For this reason, Raymond Massey acted in his place.

The film also stars Josephine Hull and Jean Adair as the Brewster sisters, Abby and Martha. Hull and Adair and John Alexander (Teddy Roosevelt) reprized their roles in the play. Hull and Adair got an eight-week leave of absence so they could shoot the film and leave the play that was still running on Broadway. Karloff did not get it, since he was one of the investors in the work and the main claim for it. The entire movie was shot in those eight weeks and cost just over $1.2 million of a $2 million budget to produce. According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $2,836,000 domestically and $1,948,000 overseas.

The film is considered a comedy classic, ranking No. 30 on the American Film Institute's list of best films. Cary Grant himself stated in several interviews that it was the role he enjoyed the most.

Plot

Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) is a journalist whose articles against marriage are well known. At the beginning of the film, however, he marries Elaine, his neighbor since they were little. Now he must make a brief trip to visit his two older aunts and bring them up to date on the news. Living with his aunts is Mortimer's brother, Teddy (John Alexander), who he believes to be Theodore Roosevelt. Every time he goes upstairs, he yells “Charge” and runs up, imitating Roosevelt's famous charge on San Juan Hill.

Mortimer finds a body hidden in a chest under the window and suspects Teddy, but his aunts explain that they are responsible. They have developed the "bad habit" of ending the lives, in a "sweet" way, of elderly men who suffer from loneliness having no living relatives. They are given to drink berry wine mixed with arsenic, strychnine and “a pinch of cyanide”. The bodies are buried by Teddy in the basement, which he believes he is digging holes for the Panama Canal and burying yellow fever victims.

To further complicate matters Jonathan (Raymond Massey), Mortimer's other brother, arrives with his drunken accomplice and plastic surgeon, Dr. Herman Einstein (Peter Lorre). Jonathan is a psychotic murderer who is trying to escape from the police and find a place to hide the body of his latest victim, a Mr. Spenalzo. Jonathan's face has been operated on by Dr. Einstein while he was drunk and he resembles Boris Karloff in his Frankenstein monster persona. This resemblance is referenced several times in the film, which greatly annoys Jonathan. Jonathan, after discovering his aunt's secret, decides to bury Spenalzo in the basement. His aunts refuse because his victims are all nice gentlemen. Jonathan makes it clear that he wants to kill Mortimer.

Mortimer makes frantic attempts to gain control of the situation while Elaine, his wife, waits for him at her parents' house, who are their neighbors. He tries in many ways to warn the clumsy local police officers of his brother Jonathan's presence, and to get the document declaring Teddy legally insane signed, giving him a good explanation in case the police officers find the bodies. He is worried because he thinks he may go crazy like the rest of the Brewster family. As he says “Madness runs free in my family, it practically gallops!” As he explains this to Elaine, he claims that they have been crazy ever since the first Brewsters came to America as pilgrims.

But in the end Jonathan is arrested, while Teddy and the two aunts are taken to a nursing home. In the end, Abby and Martha inform Mortimer that he is not biologically related to the Brewsters.

Cast

• Cary Grant – Mortimer Brewster
• Josephine Hull – Aunt Abby Brewster
• Jean Adair – Aunt Martha Brewster
• Raymond Massey – Jonathan Brewster
• Peter Lorre – Dr. Herman Einstein
• Priscilla Lane – Elaine Harper Brewster
• John Alexander – Teddy “Roosevelt” Brewster
• Jack Carson – Agent Patrick O'Hara
• John Ridgely – Agent Sanders
• Edward McNamara – Sergeant Brophy
• James Gleason – Lieutenant Rooney
• Edward Everett Horton – Mr. Witherspoon
• Grant Mitchell - Reverend Harper
• Edward McWade - Mr. Gibbs
• Garry Owen - Taxi driver
• Vaughan Glaser - Judge Cullman
• Spencer Charters - Head of the Marriage Office
• Hank Mann - Journalist
• Charles Lane - Photographer
• Lee Phelps - Phone cabin man

Reception

Contemporary reviews were uniformly positive. The New York Times critic summed up the majority opinion: "Overall, Arsenic and Old Lace, the Warner movie that hit the Strand yesterday, is good ghoulish fun". Variety stated: "Capras production, without being elaborate, captures the color and spirit of the work, while the skilled writing team of Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein He has achieved a very manageable and compact script. Capra's own clever direction completes". Harrison's Reports wrote: "A hilarious entertainment, it should become one of the biggest box office attractions of the year." John Lardner of The New Yorker called the film "practically as funny in picture form as it was on stage, and that's actually a lot of fun".

The film is recognized by the American Film Institute on these lists:

• 2000: 100 years of AFI... 100 laughter - # 30